Philip IV Cob Real ND (1651-1652) P-E AU58 NGC, Potosi mint, KM-A13.3, Cal-Type 201. 3.28gm. An impressively sharp survivor of the early Ergueta issues, right before it was decided to change the Potosi coinage's style completely due to the 1646 Potosi scandal. Organized by the assayers and other mint workers, the plan behind the "Potosi Scandal" was to reduce the purity of their coins while the thieves kept the remaining silver for themselves. The impacts were immense, even shaking Spain's reputation with the Asian trade, where merchants had the upmost trust for the Spanish Cob's silver quality. A transition of coinages occurred, full of unsuccessful attempts to uniformize the currency, one of them being the countermarking of the scandal coins with Crowned letters (or crowns alone), reducing the 8 Reales to 7 1/2 Reales. To set in stone the "New Potosi mint", a new style of Cobs was created (Pillars and Waves) and the scandal coins, countermarked or not, were to be re-melted/destroyed. HID09801242017 © 2023 Heritage Auctions | All Rights Reserved

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